Minute 31: “It means buckle your seatbelt, Dorothy.”
Transcript
0:00The Matrix Minute, a podcast where we discuss the first film one minute at a time because we just love this movie. Hi. Hi. You know me. I'm Phil. And, um, isn't it rather ironic that Morpheus and his crew are completely dependent upon technology and computers, the very evils against which they are fighting? That's a good point. I think it is ironic. The Wachowskis said, yeah. Probably another point in the story. Hello, my name's Jake, and, um, I never know what to say at this part. You can just say whatever, man. It doesn't matter. Everyone forgives you. Blank. You have to free your mind. Free it. That's okay. Sometimes it's good to have a mind. And I'm Tim. And did you guys know that the apocalypse will start in two weeks by the forest burning next to Bratislava, according to a random guy.
0:44Oh, I didn't know that. Wow. Isn't that amazing? It's great. Yep. We get to record a couple of podcasts and it's done. Right in the heart of Slovakia. I bet everyone listening doesn't even know where Bratislava is. Maybe they do. No, they do. Point of the map where Bratislava is, and I'll tell you if it's right or not. Anyway, welcome to another minute. And guess what we're doing in this minute? Mmm. Yes. It's time. It's time to close our eyes and die. And then wake up again. And live. According to Neo, what he will be doing in the next two minutes. Mmm. Will Neo help stop the forest fire? Remember that. See you next time. Yeah. Remember that. What was it? Was it Kurtzakus? Kurtzakus? Which video?
1:25It was one of those animated, like, smart videos. And they were talking about, you know, the sort of, the, about consciousness, you know, and cloning. And if consciousness gets, you know, copied to another one. And if you know yourself. And they, you know, it was interesting to say it about sleeping. Every time you fall asleep, you don't know if the person before you woke up was actually you or was that just a memory? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's CGV gray. Didn't you do that? Yeah, I think it was CGV gray. Yeah, it's like, yeah. The teleportation, falling asleep and dying. Yeah. You lose your stream of consciousness and when you sleep and you can never really be sure. That's true. You can't, no. See, these are the questions. Is that you? Or is it, or is it another person who has your memories?
2:07Exactly. That's a legitimate question. Yeah. Well, in this case. It's a problem of identity. In the Matrix's case, it's definitely going to be a different image of you. That's true. There's two of you. One in the real world and one in the Matrix. Both share the same consciousness, but who is the real one? The simulated one from the computer? I think let's have a problem with the Matrix. It's just like, the Matrix is just like taking up a username, like, Yonduboob25. Yonduboob. Yonduboob25, and then you're on, you know, Second Life. Oh, yeah. Remember Second Life? Is that thing still a thing? I never actually even saw, like, clips or anything.
2:50I actually had a clip. I had a login. I went to, it was a weird place. Did you? Yeah. Wow. Talk about this. This is very relevant to our themes in this podcast series. On my computer, I created a login. It's a 3D, so my computer wasn't handling it well. When was this? Back in Ireland, I would say, like, 2009, 2008. Do you know what I heard, though? I heard that a lot of people who got into Second Life actually... Never got out. Well, yeah, sort of. A lot of them got very much into it, and for some people, it became their main life with Second Life. Yeah, you can buy and sell stuff there, apparently. You can buy and sell stuff. Some people, like, I think I heard one time a lady made a living off of designing dresses
3:31in Second Life and selling them. But that's so weird, because it's so much like The Matrix. Yeah, it is. Except ugly and bad. But some people explain that it is really like a... When you start playing it for a longer time, you have this dual life happening, where you're in one world, you're a normal salesman. In the other world, you're a crime-fighting, civil, obedient citizen. Yeah, yeah, yeah. If you're not, like, you know... Well, I don't know how much role-play is there. I mean, I did it, and, you know, I am that kind of type that can't take those things seriously. So, unless you're playing a game where it's competition, otherwise, role-playing, in that kind of scenario, it's like, what? So, I was just trolling people around, you know, and they were trying to have, like, conversations
4:13and stuff like that. It would be annoying. But it's funny, but, like, you can look at that even at a smaller scale, you know? When I was a kid, I would join, like, I remember on DeviantArt, I would join the chat rooms, and you kind of get involved in those kind of places, even though there's no virtual world. It's just talking to people in a group, you know, from the other side of the universe. But you make friends, you make yourself kind of personality, you know, and that kind of thing. And it's a... It's a different kind of... Yeah, it's a different kind of vibe. Corner. And you get to make yourself the way you kind of think you are. Want to present yourself. Yeah, you want to present yourself. Well, that's the whole internet thing as well. Yeah. I mean, in The Matrix, you can't do that unless you're unplugged, obviously. You can't just pick up whatever crap.
4:53I have a great dumb story related to this. As I mentioned before, on this podcast, I used to play this game called The Specialists, which was a mod for, I think, either Counter-Strike or Half-Life. I still can't remember. One of those two. Those are really similar. Aren't they like the same engine? Yeah. And on The Specialists, there was one server where, you know, people obviously just shoot each other. It's just deathmatch. But one of the servers was like a town. The map was like a town, like a little friendly town and stuff. Oh, I think I remember that. Was there an In-N-Out burn? Oh, yeah. I remember that. And the funny thing was, those players in that server were basically, they made their own rules. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And they were doing like, imagine like playhouse sort of rules where it's like, oh, you know,
5:33if you do something wrong, then this guy will put you to jail. And he'll, you know, escort you to jail. They were literally playing house in that neighborhood. Exactly. And then he puts you in jail and you press the button and people were like going along with this. Yes. Like, oh, I'm in jail now. Oh. And it's like 10 minute timer for you for being bad and robbing the bank over here. Right. People still do that. It was so funny because I was there, you know, like Tim a little bit, like just messing around. And you did some things that were out of order. Yeah, I did some stuff out of order because I figured this is a game. Is the internet? Who cares? I'm going to mess around with this stuff. I remember this. Being the troll. And they were getting angry at me. They were like typing like, stop, this is real. Not that. They were saying, stop, like we're doing this. You have to go to jail. What are you doing? It's against the rules. They're threatening to kick me off the server.
6:15This is so appropriate for our major podcast. It was so funny because I remember it was so real. And then one time I was like, okay, I'll do it. And I was like, I'm walking with this guy doing jumpy tricks and slow-mo moves next to me. Takes me to the prison. It's like, press the button. I'm like, oh, this is boring. People love role-playing stuff. I remember, I think in the new GTA V, there's like extra custom servers on the PC version where people have this kind of world set up. It's the entire GTA, you know, like the Los Santos place. And you can choose your role. And you can be a cop. You can be a robber. You can be a politician. Whatever you want to be. And you kind of sort of role-play in this kind of world and these kind of rules. So, you know. Do you remember, do you guys remember that story? I think Phil, you told me that was hilarious on Reddit. Someone posted the greatest story from Grand Theft Auto.
6:57I think it was Grand Theft Auto. What was the new? What's the new? It was in five. Yeah. And on the server, he said, I, you know. It was just like this elaborate story about this guy meeting this other guy on the server. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And they become, throughout the day, they actually played like for a whole day. And just became friends. And they became friends. And they were killing other people, robbing stores, just doing everything together. Hijacking helicopters. And they're bros. Not talking at each other. Having a connection. Yeah, having a connection. Beyond language. They're brothers in this game. Tea bagging. And they're, you know, they're thick and thin. A lot of hours playing. A lot of hours, you know, it's like this is the best friendship. Just today. It happened. Just that one day. They were so compatible with each other that they understood each other so well that they went on, you know, like every car they took with each other.
7:39They were driving and stuff. And then at the end, they go up to a mountain. I think there's a rooftop of a building. No, no, no, no, no. It was a mountaintop looking at the sky and seeing the sunset in peace, you know, standing. And then? And then the guy's friend turns around and his friend is pointing a gun at him. And shoots him in the back. And shoots him in the back. Perfect. I just love it because that like encapsulates the whole idea of these internet sort of endeavors is you can be the best buds for one day. Everything works out. But at the end, it's a game. I'm going to shoot you in the head or in the back. And it's over. I'm going to get bored.
8:20Well, remember, last one, I remember that guy, Tim, I think you linked us to the video, also Grand Theft Auto. We're like, okay, we're going to play Simon Says. Oh, yeah, that's a good one. Oh, yeah, that's a classic one. Guys, guys, Simon Says. I was like, 15 people in a row, all jumping, all restless, with like no weapons because just knives. What was it? Some stupid rule they made up. I was like, yeah, just to take out your knives. I think it's like a 10 minute buildup of having like these 18 people in a row standing. It's like, let's play Simon. And we're not supposed to do jump. And then at one point, one of them just runs away and then comes back with a car. And rams 15 of them with a car. And Mr. Organizer is going nuts. But I think before that, someone already took a knife out and they started stabbing each
9:04other and they're going, no, stop, stop, stop. And then the car came in. Just can't organize these things. Well, you have to make a game specifically for this or else. Or with your actual friends in real life. Yeah. Yeah. Not like. Okay. Okay. Anyway. We are doing, we are, by the way, we are extending our intros. Yeah. But this is, this was a special case because this is about simulation and we're talking about virtual worlds and I think it's appropriate. So I let it go. I let it fly. But now we're going back to business and the business is minute 31. Wait, let me check. How long are we talking? Oh my goodness. 10 minutes. That's a big intro. Okay. Yeah. Oh well. And this is minute 31. And this is what happens in minute 31. Morpheus continues to explain that the pill disrupts Neo's input-output carrier signal so
9:47they can pinpoint his location. Location where? What does this mean? Cypher responds. It means buckle your seatbelt, Dorothy. Cause Kansas is going bye-bye. Switch smiles at the remark. And in a few moments, Neo sees the mirror next to him fix itself. Asks if they, they did that? But is too distracted to finish his sentence. And proceeds to touch it. And that is the... I will not touch it. I will touch the silver. So the red pill is here to disrupt Neo's carrier signal in the matrix. So it's like a virus. So it enables the Neb crew to find his physical location apparently in the power plant, right? I always imagine that it just basically does some kind of weird noise signal. Where if you look at like the visuals, you see all these like normal patterns and suddenly
10:30have this like abnormal pattern over here. And they're like, whoa. And then they're like in the actual physical world. In the physical world. Yeah. Like the power plant basically, like Phil said, just an interruption to the signal so they can find it. Cause otherwise they have no clue what pod he's in. Yeah. But they would probably have to be hooked up to the sort of, to the whatever database or whatever that is to see which one is blinking, you know, because otherwise I don't think you could actually put out a signal in the real world. No, it's again, hardwired. We come back to the hardwires. Yeah. They're looking at, they're looking at the actual. Yeah. But it's also funny that Morpho tells that to Neo because that has no bearing in any kind. This is nothing you needs to know. Yeah. But Morphius loves these speeches.
11:12We've established that. He loves the. Right. Morpho. The grandeur of, I will describe everything now to you. So do you guys think Neo is piecing things together right now? Because so far he only had like really cryptic, you know, very kind of. I don't think so. Metaphoric explanation from Morphius. I think he's very confused. I think he doesn't know what's going to happen. I think maybe he probably at best probably imagines that he might have some kind of explanation or something given or some kind of a secret revealed, but I don't think he's ever expecting a secret that, that great, you know? Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Because he's completely confused and as far as I recall from the things that he has been
11:54told so far, it's like nothing really, you know, that kind of makes sense in a very basic way, you know? Yeah. So I really think that he's, I mean, look at him. He's shivering. He's a cold man. He's a cold man. He's a cold, shivery man. He has some Bluetooth headphones and some, uh, some little heart monitors. And then he looks at this side and there's the mirror, the dream mirror. Right. But there's another, but before that there's a closeup of Trinity and she's doodling things on the, on the keyboard. What do you think she's doing? That's what I always wanted to know. Like, well, what's she doing? What are all the other guys doing? Like what's Trinity's job? You know what they're doing? They all have like a little internal chat and they're like writing messages.
12:36Look at him. He's scared. Hey, look into those glasses again. It freaks him out. He thinks you're looking inside his guts. I think you're right. That sounds accurate. Accurate. Accurate. And they're like, so what's it going to be this time? The mirror? Yeah. The mirror. Check the mirror. Look at the mirror. Well, here's my question. Let's see how you react to the mirror. I would love to hear what you guys think about this. Do you think this is a standardized procedure or do you think they just wing it and think of something new each time? I think they wing it and think of something new. I have no idea what the mirror's got to do with anything though. Well. We get to see more of it in the next minute. That's what I also wondered because the mirror, what did they do? It serves really no purpose if you think about it. They could have just said Neo rest and he wakes up.
13:17Right. Right. Well, here's, there's a few things that I might have. Okay. Tell us, Phil. Tell us this because I don't know. First, but first I wanted to say that when he looks at the broken mirror, I remember that was the first image I saw from a TV advertisement in 1999 when I first heard about the Matrix. The first like little clip, right? Where it's just Neo's reflection and that broken mirror turning into a cleaned up mirror, right? That was on TV and it was like new hit films like so-and-so and the Matrix and this and that and I saw a clip from the Matrix, but I've heard about the Matrix before in 1999, but you know, it's rated R and my friends at school were saying like, it's a weird and bleak movie. And then they're also, you know, say, you know, and so when I saw a clip of it, I thought,
13:59oh, scary movie. I'm never going to see Matrix. Ooh. Rated R. Ooh. Spooky. So I got scared of that. But anyway, there's a few theories some people are talking about. I want to hear some of these. Let's hear these. Like for example, that... I'm trying to read what I wrote. So like, so it's like part of Neo's perception in the Matrix and that the Matrix was trying to like automatically repair code flaws because it's noticing that there's code that's being corrupted now because of that pill.
14:40And so what's happening, that's what's happening to Neo's carrier signal. And so things next to Neo are also trying to repair themselves. Like that's the Matrix trying to fight back and keep things normal. And it's just a side effect to Neo's changing code, you know, for his residual self image. So to Neo, he's already starting to see like weird things which are actually happening. So the mirror like... So the disruption is just causing byproducts in the Matrix. Yes, that's a byproduct. And so it's trying to change itself to whatever it tries to think is normal. Like Matrix automatically doing that. So when Neo touches it, it just turns into liquid.
15:23So it's like corruption of the code that the pill triggered, you know, around him, I guess. That's kind of one thing that some people were talking about over on the internet that I found. That's not a bad one. Second life talking to people about the Matrix. Yeah, yeah. And, but of course, symbolically, it's also a symbol for reflections and reality, you know, which is also in the score. And it's also in the movie itself. It's like the real world and the fake world. And it's like a mirror. It's a symbolic thing. And, but the Wachowskis also, they actually said that it's just directly influenced by the red pill and his perception of how things are going. Interesting. So if we count the Wachowskis, their wisdom canon view, it would be the red pill.
16:08Yeah. If we, if we talk about, I mean, if we take that into consideration, would that mean that he's the only one who's seeing the freaky mirror stuff? Yeah, probably. Well, I was thinking about that. And I think what Phil is explaining. Oh, man. Maybe. If it's a red pill, I think this is his only perception because otherwise it wouldn't make sense. Why would, you know, what we see in the next minute? Why? I don't know why would that happen? You know, if you. Well, I have more stuff to talk about in the next minute, but. Unless, of course, unless, of course, the people who are freed can actually in some ways manipulate the physical world with some strange program. Like this pill causes weird things. But again, that's a bit of a stretch because then we're back to the problem of how much, what are the limits and so forth.
16:51And why would they need? I mean, they just need to kind of like pinpoint him and then basically unplug him. That's all they need to do. I don't think they need to delete him in this world or whatever. Who knows? Yeah. I want to know what happens next. Kind of. But before that, there's also Cypher in his close-up, right? He's like, buckle your seatbelt, Dorothy, Kansas, going bye-bye, right? It's a reference to Wizard of Oz. Did you know that when you were a kid or no? Yeah. Me? No way. Really? No. No, why would I? I've never watched. Wizard of Oz. Wizard of Oz. Has everybody seen that? Everybody in every country. Little American Trial. Children. I didn't watch no Wizard of Oz. You were watching. Movie that turns from black and white. You were scrolling. You were scrolling rotten.com.
17:33I watched Blade. Also Blade, yeah. Blade. And then we were like, no, it's rated R. We're scared. What does rated R mean? I have no idea. I remember that. What is that? What do you mean? The ratings? The R.P.G.? You're like, what? No idea what you guys are talking about. Didn't you think once it was like rating, like star rating, I think? I don't remember. I just was really confused. Like, what do you mean rated R? What does that mean? I remember watching Blade on VHS. Yeah. Yeah, I remember that too. Same with X-Men. X-Men on VHS? Yeah. Wow. And the Matrix. Well, you know what's funny? Here's a really... 1998, 1999, 2000. Here's a boring fact, but we had this VHS player that was NTSC while we were in Europe.
18:15We had this NTSC VHS player, which is NTSC is the American standardization. I don't know what it means, but basically different format, right? For tapes and things. But it could also play European tapes, which was great. So it's like a dual thing. But back in the day, apparently these things were hard to make. When you put a European VHS into the player, we would always get these static lines on the film. NTSC means National Television Systems Committee. Yeah. And the European equivalent is PAL. Your good old PAL. I don't know what it stands for. But anyway... That means friend. Just PAL. They were a good buddy. And it was so weird because every time we would play European tapes on that VHS machine,
18:55we'd get these strange lines. And I can't believe we watched movies like that. We actually watched movies with lines on the picture. Yeah. Yeah. Crazy. Watch them cropped. Because they're all modified to fit to your screen. And do you remember on VHS tapes, not tapes, VHS players, do you remember there was a tracking button? Yes. Yes. Which you could correct the image if it's... Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Like to kind of repair the strange alignment. Anyway, there's other allusions in the Matrix, which is also like, there's a lot of Alice in Wonderland references. Well, let's count them because we only have one. And you know, you take a pill, just like in Alice in Wonderland where it's like, you know, the...
19:35Well, she intakes quite a few different things. Yeah. And it's like... She takes opium. And it... It's high. Yeah. Pretty much. And it gets bigger and smaller. And so that's kind of the same thing. Interesting, yeah. So there are more Alice in Wonderland references. Things change. But I just wanted to ask, what is up with Cypher's goggles? Oh, I think we talked about it last time. The virtual boy goggles. Nothing, really? No, I think he's just... Nothing on there? Whatever. He's looking at the... How about you write down and see? We can discuss it on our empty Facebook group. It's true, yeah. Join us in our empty Facebook group. It's awaiting. It's awaiting for discussions. Yes. Tell us. Should we start a discussion? Do you think it's... We feel like we just jab around the podcast anyway. So it's kind of hard to go type more stuff.
20:16But then when he says Kansas is going bye-bye, ha-ha, and the lightning goes, we cut the switch going, smiling. Well, because maybe she's from Kansas. Maybe she heard that joke a thousand times. Think about it. She hates it already. Her Southern accent, kind of. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You never know, man. From the Kansas district in Mega City? That's correct. And like you said, there's this thing where Trinity looks... What do you guys think when Trinity looks at Neo, and then she looks at Morpheus in a very concerned way. I know. That's what editor Zach Steinberg puts in, because you need those things to make people feel differently when they're watching the film. Because Trinity's like, well, this is weird. It's not normal. And Morpheus is like, I know everything. It's going to be good.
20:56I know all. Well, that's about all that kind of happens in this. Pretty much. We learn that magic is real. Pretty much just getting ready. Magic is real. Mirrors can be. And that, pretty much it, is it. It is it. It is it. Follow us. On the things. Correct. The things are there. You can follow us. Ask at the matrix.one. No! I messed it up. Ask at the matrixminute.one for your questions, and we will answer. And then there's the matrix minute on Twitter. All one word. There's Facebook, the matrix minute. It's all the matrix minute. Just look for that. If there's too many places, we'll delete them. Just tell us which ones to delete. We'll do anything, honestly, for attention. We'll do anything for attention.
21:37For the spotlight for five minutes. We'll do it. Yeah. All right. Great. So we got that covered. Enjoy your days, and thank you so much for listening to us so far. Enjoy your days. That sounds so sad. Enjoy your days. No, the apocalypse is not coming. It's not true, Philip. The man on the bus. Enjoy your day. Okay. Okay. Goodbye, everybody. No, no. It sounds even worse. We'll catch you next time. I'll see you next episode. Yes. Bye-bye.